Learn the Form, But Seek the Formless

So there I was, swearing by those learned tried-and-true techniques of yester...decade? The methods I was taught to rely upon in college. I sat there on a recent post, and went on and on about a good camera, photo scrap, a light box and an Artograph projector, and how this was the only way to go for a successful rendering.

Then this happened. While it is not my very very best, these results, though deliberately humorous, prove that maybe that great proverb from the movie The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) is a better philosophy, sometimes. How have you not seen this movie? Oh, that’s right. You don’t like Michael Angarano and you always listen to what everybody tells you, right? Oh, so you can think for yourself! Good. Be peoples, not sheeples, folks!

Anyway, here’s the movie quote: “Learn the form, but seek the formless. Hear the soundless. Learn it all, then forget it all. Learn The Way, then find your own way.” And there’s another quote by an artist that basically centers around this same philosophy, though I forget which artist said it, so there’s little or no point in tracking that quote down because you get the idea! Moving on.

Yup! Sometimes you gotta just throw out the rules and go! Just burn away at that project like a Roman Candle on steroids! Best is done, they say! Here’s to done. I've finally arrived at that place where I actually like what I'm doing.

The top two piggies were an oops. I revised the drawing with tracing paper and Sharpie markers. The rest is just Photoshoppe. Enjoy!

SLiM

Expediting the Results

Let’s say you want to make a drawing of a place that you’ve never been. Sure, you could play it easy and browse similar looking images on the web, download them, print them off, slip-sheet them and get cracking. Or...you could go the traditional route and actually seek out and photograph similar looking places, print off the pics and run them through an Artograph.

The problem with sticking to the internet is that it’s common. Everybody has seen and downloaded those same images. It’s called playing it safe, and playing it safe sucks, and if you’re a college student, you really should know better.

Illustration is an expensive hobby. Having a few French curves, a T-square, a drafting table, some pencils and some tracing paper is a good place to start, but before you know it, you realize that what you really need...is a camera. A real camera. One capable of taking iconic photos. In other words photos that are not of someone standing in front of a mirror.

And there’s a lot of leg work involved in this game called commercial art. It’s not just a matter of making a drawing and turning it into a painting. If your Leonardo DaVinci, you can do that, but the rest of us have a much finer line to walk. And sometimes you don’t have the time to do it the traditional way. Sometimes you need to produce results and produce them fast!

Mouse Guard illustrator and author David Petersen is a classic example here. Petersen makes a small mock-up of what he wants to draw, photographs it, prints it off and turns it into an environment fit for the project. Using foamcore board, Styrofoam, cardboard, found items and polystyrene model parts, Petersen can create the backdrop for any scene he needs. All he needs to start is a quick sketch or two.

Here I have designed a floor plan of sorts for something I want to build myself. I have no idea how to do things to scale in Adobe Photoshop, so I just sort of used my imagination. This is mostly Custom Shape Tool and Rectangular Marquee. The textures are courtesy of Gettyimages. 

I think I did okay here. I mean, the tiled floor is sort of busy, and the textures for all the tables and chairs, etc. could be a little lighter. There’s always room for improvement, I suppose, but at least I can say I have a blueprint for something i want to build. Yes it’s a tavern. Thanks.

SLiM

All Images are Copyright © Stephen L. Morris 2020 All Rights Reserved.

The Word Glorified Gets Thrown Around a Lot

From illustrator to glorified turd polisher. Or so it seems. When I struggle with drawing, it’s usually because I’m doing it the wrong way. In other words I’m relying on memory, what I remember about drawing and design in those 8 years of college (part time), instead of working from photo scrap, as one of my illustration teachers calls it. But any progress, theoretically, is still progress.

Yet I see the results I make, and I catch myself thinking “oh no problem! I can clean this up in Adobe Photoshop in a jiff!” The problem with that is the drawing never gets improved upon. But maybe I should begin from the beginning.

You see, back in 2004, I’d had an idea for an ink drawing that I wanted to do for my dad’s birthday. My dad and I share a love and passion for heroic and mythic fantasy, specifically, author Robert E. Howard’s Conan. It’s a common interest that began, ironically with the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

Anyway, back in 2004, I had barely two years worth of college so in class I did the best I could with drawing “the right way.” I had originally learned from memory, and relied on it to create this humorous, if not somewhat dark caricaturing of my father and myself re-imagined as R.E. Howard-esque barbarians.

I figure the reason I didn’t do the drawing the way I had learned it in college was due to the fact that the project required cartooning, something I was interested in, but was learning illustration and graphic design instead. This is a decision that has continued to haunt me throughout my career (LOL!) as an artist. I often think I should have at least learned the basics, but everything happens for a reason.

Getting to the other image, this triadic is from a sloppy rushed ink drawing I did in 2013. I cleaned it up in, you guessed it, Adobe Photoshop (aren’t you surprised?) and added some colors, but in the immortal words of special effects artist and Face Off contestant Roy Wooley, “it’s hard to polish a turd.”

Although I kind of like it. So there you have it, folk(s). Cartoon barbarians. I hope Sergio Aragonés doesn’t sue me for copyright infringement! I kid. I kid. Although anything is possible. Kidding.
Happy Arting. 

SLiM

All Images © Stephen L Morris 2020

Cute and Creepy! ^ . ^

Let’s face it. I pretty much suck at social media. But that’s no excuse to go so long (last post was in May) without blogging. So here goes. . .

2019 was a brutal year for me and my family. There were a handful of deaths in the family, and someone very close to me had a stroke! Yeah. Needless to say, I’ve got my fingers crossed that 2020’s going to turn out infinitesimally better. 

But not all of 2019 was negative. From the creativity point of view, I continued laboring over my tabletop roleplaying game, which I hope to finish in 2020 (vanilla expansion, etc. Whatever they call it. I’m old. LOL). However, I also sat on my arse a lot, so. . .

Anyway, I’m proud….no. I’m grateful. Grateful to be finished with a design I’d hoped to finish last year. I like ‘im. Love 'im, actually. 

He's that all-too-popular mixture of cute/creepy, and though I detest pretty much all things popular (except for Guardians of the Galaxy, Shazam, New Voltron and some other stuffs), I really dig the way this turned out, I must say. 

It's an owl. Forgot to mention that. Well, maybe it's not an owl, per se, but an apparition that assumes the form of an owl. Or it's an apparition of an owl. Your choice, peeps.  Also included a progress...progressy...thing. 

On the progression...thing...there is a difference between every single rendering. Trust me. (Shyeah, right!) 6 has only one line, in addition to 5. I made symmetrical the nose. Sorry for the watermarks (not sorry, actually), but what’s mine is not yours...at least not until I put it on a product and sell it. 😉 Tootles. And enjoy cut/creepy. By for now. Next post is in 2021!! Kidding. Kidding.

SLiM

All images (below) © Stephen L Morris 2020

Blood, Sweat and Jeers!!

Let's face it! Sometimes in Illustration, you just have to take matters into your own hands. Costumes, props, a tripod, a digital camera, what can I say? It's an expensive hobby, but as one of my illustration teachers quoth: 

"You're only as good as your photo scrap." 

Right now I don't feel very good, 🤣 but I know I've made imagery I posed for with a timed camera work before. 

These sixteen black and white thumbnails, modest and in most cases hilarious they may be, are a tiny portion of the result of about and hour and a half's worth of effort. 

These I'm confident I can work with, because it's not about competing with the photo itself, but what you can make it look like, or some sh*t like that. It was the first thing that popped in my head. 

I think I like the one with the blue frame the best!! Thanks for reading. And viewing. And guffawing. 

😂

SLiM

Progress is Progress

At this point I can honestly say I feel I've got a good chance of getting at least a remarkable chunk of this done, if not the whole thing. The goal here is to complete everything that one would require to learn, play and run the game: character sheets, maps, classes, races, weapons, armor, player rules, GM rules, adventures, dungeons, maps, dice, the works! So kind of like a basic starter set.

Strangely, however, the hard part has been all the artwork that is needed. I mean, you'd think that would be the easy part for me but lately I've really been dreading all the character designs, creature designs and so forth required. I mean I literally need artwork on almost every single page. That's a lot, but it has to be done. 

I've set a deadline for my birthday in July, just to see how much I could get done, though I think I may have a better chance of project completion  by the end of the year!!!! 

If you are wondering something along the lines of "dude, why don't you just get a Kickstarter or GoFundMe" the answer is that money is not really the issue on this particular project and I'm kind of into getting there on my own steam. Nothing against those that do start one of these accounts. 

Anyway, this checklist (below) represents the bulk of this project, though the item titled Character Sheet Item Descriptions should be under Writing, not Artwork. Sorry about that. Oh, and it should read Weapons and Armor Art at the bottom. I can't type!  🤣 Thanks for playing!!

^ . ^

SLiM

Steak n Shake Sketching with Foray Rollerball

So just last week, I found myself in the Steak -n- Shake on Kendall drive, Miami Florida not once but twice. I stop by there periodically with my family and friends, and usually for milkshakes. 

Sigh... 

Anyway, last week we happened by and on both occasions I made a cool little sketch on the back of my place-mat. Y'know, that little sheet of paper they sit in front of you that has some nasty looking new 'flavor' of milkshake on it? Lately I think it's...Strawberry cheesecake, or something??!? 

Hey. Each to their own and all that but that new stuff does NOT look appetizing to yours truly, though lately I've been getting a half and half Reese's brand peanut butter & vanilla, and it is just divine! Or at least I think so, but different strokes for different folks! Life is far too short to spend squabbling about how the whole world should see things your way! 😉

Moving on. The following sketches are an improvement for me. Usually I just stare blankly at the back of my place-mat, wondering what to draw. But on both occasions, I thought of an object, and the drawing evolved from there!!

So I wanted to do a take off the ol' scarecrow thang, but as a birdhouse. To begin with, I was actually thinking 'wooden robot,' and the rest just happened. A friend that was sitting with us asked how that idea of all ideas popped in my head. I was more than happy to tell her exactly what I've just told you. It's not often I get to brag about what I do, not that you should brag.

On this one, I was thinking of one of those radios from the 1930s. The ones with the wooden cabinet, and still semi in the style of Art Nouveau. Why does everything gotta be streamlined? I like retro. Hell, I like rustic. Just because the insides are state of the art doesn't mean it's outside have to match!! Live a little, people!!!! I guess this little guy's head is pretty much the radio I was thinking of. I gooned the body. And all of this was done with a blue Foray Rolle Rollerball ink pen. The rest is mostly just making my scan look like something. Cool, huh?? Thanks for reading!!

^ . ^

SLiM